Effie May had thought it rather suspicious how persistent her mother had been that they all have a ‘family outing’ (pointedly not mentioning her black sheep of a brother), and enjoy the nice autumn weather at the harvest celebration.

Whilst she’d rather have been doing anything else–catching up on paperwork even–it was impossible for her to deny her mother anything. Especially since the woman had made guilt-tripping her daughter into an art form. So here they all were, stood together (for now, until her father ran off to find drink), when she noticed that her mother appeared to be looking for someone. Her dark brown eyes had been darting from face to face in what was clearly expectation.

And then her face had lit up into a smile, she’d strode off into the crowd (leaving Effie alone with her father, who decide it was the opportune time to begin complaining about how ridiculous all the festivities were), and then she’d returned with a man in tow. One that she recognized from school, though they hadn’t been anything close to friends. They’d both been seekers for their respective houses - he for Ravenclaw, and she for Gryffindor. They’d played plenty of games against one other.

Before she knew it, she’d been shuttled off on a hayride with Mr. Bashar. The hay bale poked at her through the fabric of her clothing, and no matter how she tried to adjust her position, there was no getting comfortable. It was a perfect physical example of how she felt about the situation. It would seem Mr. Bashar would agree, given his body language. (His body language was all she knew about him really, having spent many a game keeping an eye on him for any clues he'd seen the snitch before she had.)

"I’m having the time of my life.” She said dryly. Her mother had been pressuring her to court for years now, but this was the first time she'd actually taken it upon herself to make it happen. And then, because Effie May was Effie May, she asked point blank, "How did my mother trick you into this?”